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Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Few Words

I have not written about the death of Robin Williams. It is hard to do so since there is so much work he produced, so much impact he had, so much joy he created. I watched his very first appearance on Happy Days when it happened, I loved Mork and Mindy during its run, was wowed by Garp, (avoided Popeye), had to find ways to watch Comic Relief since I did not have access to HBO, and so on.

We know for most of his career that he had real problems that finally caught up with him. Despite those problems, he went far, far, far out of his way to make a positive impact on people who were facing the most stressful of circumstances. I am sure the political left found his work on Comic Relief to be the most important thing Robin Williams did. I am sure the right found his work going out to military bases in Afghanistan and Iraq (and elsewhere) to be the most important thing he did.

That Robin Williams did both shows that his heart was huge, that his kindness was for those in harm's way, regardless of how people found themselves in such positions. People have written much on why they were touched so much by Robin, why his death is so affecting. I think the combination of brilliance with kindness is the thing. There are more than a few geniuses out there, but geniuses that are so sweet, so concerned, and so dedicated to making others feel better?

Time to watch some more of his performances as he proved that laughter is great medicine. Glad we had him for as long as we did.

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Stephen M. Saideman

Intro

Greetings! I am a political scientist, specializing in International Relations, my research and teaching focus on ethnic conflict and civil-military relations. I watch way too much TV, and I like movies as well so I tend to write about both and find IR stuff in pop culture. I rant alot about American politics and sometimes about Canadian politics. I like to take ideas I once learned a long time ago and apply them to whatever strikes my fancy.